Welcome to SIPA

SEAFOOD IMPORTERS & PROCESSORS ALLIANCE

SIPA is an international alliance of seafood businesses dedicated to food safety issues and legislation

Support network Share information with other members on the issues that affect you most: seafood safety, European trade, tariffs, supply and reputation. Receive recommendations and support on how to overcome these issues.

Sponsored researchSIPA regularly sponsors studies to benefit its members, their businesses and the international seafood trade. These special studies have included veterinary residues and DNA testing.

An organisation with transparency SIPA is self-funded and has no government or national affiliations. We are free to direct our efforts towards improving the conditions under which seafood is produced and traded worldwide.

International connections SIPA has been very successful in using its international contacts to improve relations between European and international operators and authorities.

The Seafood Importers and Processors Alliance (SIPA) was founded in 2002 in order to facilitate scientific research into all issues relating to food safety and food security of fishery and aquaculture products that have been imported into the European Union.

Moreover SIPA acts as a representative body for members of the international seafood community. Most of the available funding has been spent on scientific research in the field of chemical food safety, especially in the area of residues of pharmacologically active compounds (antibiotics) in seafood. This has resulted in an impressive list of scientific papers, which have been published in books and journals from various areas of science (see list below). The publications have helped the European Commission in guiding a path for creating regulations which ensure the safest food for the European consumer, and which also offer a level playing field for the international seafood industry.

According to the FAO, the growing world population will require a huge increase in seafood production, which has to come mainly from aquaculture. The key to obtaining this goal will be sustainability, towards which SIPA has always contributed via various public–private partnerships with producing countries like Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam. The international network SIPA has built in the years of existence is vast and its name is well known in the seafood-producing countries outside the EU. Within the EU SIPA continues to support solid research and continues to improve visibility in the international press and symposia to help smooth the path for the sustainable growth of seafood production, especially in the area of global harmonization of regulations regarding food safety and seafood trade. We invite all companies and organizations involved in exporting or importing seafood into the EU to support our goals. Joining SIPA also provides great business opportunities within the community of European seafood importers.